Faith and Healing: Different Expressions of God's Healing Touch
On March 23, 2025 at Lakeview Wesleyan Church, I shared a message on physical healing. The message was entitled If You Will, You Can. This series of articles is based on that message from Matthew 8 & 9.
Throughout Matthew 8 and 9, we see Jesus heal in various ways—touching a leper, speaking a word for the centurion's servant, taking a dead girl by the hand, responding to a desperate touch of His garment, and touching blind eyes. These diverse approaches reveal something important: God's healing touch isn't limited to one method or approach.
Jesus's healing responses were perfectly tailored to each individual situation. To the socially outcast leper, Jesus did the unthinkable—He physically touched him, breaking social norms, and said, "I will; be clean." This wasn't just physical healing but social restoration.
For the centurion's servant, Jesus never even entered the house. He simply declared, "Go; let it be done for you as you have believed," honoring the centurion's understanding of authority and distance-healing.
When Peter's mother-in-law lay sick with fever, Jesus touched her hand, and the fever left her. That evening, He cast out spirits with merely a word and healed all who were sick, fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy: "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases."
For the paralytic, Jesus first addressed his spiritual condition, saying, "Your sins are forgiven," before commanding him to rise and walk. This healing demonstrated Jesus's authority over both sin and physical ailment.
With the woman suffering from bleeding, Jesus responded to her initiative—she touched Him rather than Him touching her. For the ruler's daughter who had died, Jesus went to her room, cleared it of mourners, took her by the hand, and raised her up.
For the blind men, after confirming their belief, Jesus touched their eyes saying, "According to your faith be it done to you." In each situation, Jesus responded uniquely, showing that healing isn't formulaic but relational.
These varied approaches remind us that God's healing work continues to take diverse forms today. Sometimes healing comes through immediate divine intervention—a miraculous touch that doctors cannot explain. Sometimes it comes through medical treatment—God working through skilled practitioners and modern medicine. Sometimes healing comes gradually through lifestyle changes, therapy, or rehabilitation. And sometimes, ultimate healing comes only in eternity, when our bodies are fully restored in resurrection.
Just as Jesus responded differently to each person based on their unique situation and expression of faith, He continues to work uniquely in our lives today. There's no single "right way" to experience God's healing touch. What remains constant is not the method but the source—Jesus Christ, who is "the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
This understanding liberates us from rigid expectations about how healing should happen and opens us to recognize God's work in all its wonderful variety. Whether through supernatural intervention, medical science, gradual recovery, or eternal restoration, all healing comes from the same compassionate Savior who looked upon the crowds with mercy and met each person at their point of need.
Reflection Questions:
1. In what unexpected ways have you experienced God's healing touch in your life—whether physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual?
2. How might your expectations about the "right way" God should heal be limiting your ability to recognize His work in your life or the lives of others?
3. In what area of your life do you need healing today, and how might you approach Jesus with both faith in His ability and openness to His methods?